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Erika Kirk’s public granting of forgiveness to her husband’s killer caught the nation’s attention. It was a beautiful display of the Gospel and reminded me of something I witnessed a few years ago that brought me to tears.

When I was in college, a friend of mine was working the night shift at a small gas station/convenience store by himself. At around 1 a.m., a man came in wearing a ski mask and holding a gun, demanding that he open the cash register. My friend, whose name was Jim, thought it was me playing a prank. So he started laughing and said, “Yeah right, Scott. Take the ski mask off.”

I spoke with a young woman in our church who rode the bus to school with Charlie Kirk every morning. She’s not the only one in our church who knew him personally. I think all of us were shocked at the atrocity of his assassination. I was at the airport and about to board the flight home when news came that he had been shot. People all over the airport were talking about it. Someone showed me a video of him being hit, and it was something I wish I could unsee. It wasn’t until

If you put a vulture in a 6’x8’ pen that is open on top, the bird—despite its ability to fly—would be a prisoner. Vultures learn to fly by running 10 to 12 feet and lifting off. They are fully capable of taking off in a short span, they just don’t know it.

Jean-Jacques Guiony, CFO of French luxury multinational LVMH supplier of fine wines, says that champagne sales are down because people are too sad about the state of the world to celebrate. Guiony said, “Maybe the current global situation, be it geopolitical or macroeconomic, does not lead people to cheer up and to open bottles of champagne.” With prices seemingly up for everything else, champagne prices are down 20% over the past two years and sales continue to drop.

Self-denial. Delayed gratification. I know, not exactly the best thoughts to draw readers in.

“I have doubts. Does that mean I don’t have faith?” I’ve been asked this dozens of times.

How you manage your emotions has more of an impact on your marriage, raising kids, and doing well at work than just about anything else. In his book, Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman demonstrates how a person’s ability to manage his or her emotions has more influence on their success in life than IQ.

I read a study a few years ago that highlighted the difference between those who bounce back after adversity and those who don’t. Bounce-back people see challenges in trouble and maintain a “can do” attitude, while remaining focused on those things in life that are bigger than them. People who don’t bounce back tend to be self-focused and negative thinkers.

Joseph was a script flipper. His brothers sold him into slavery and a few years after, they were bowing before him to serve him. He later told them, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20).

How thick is your skin? I know, there’s a lot of talk about victims and snowflakes. But I’m not writing this post for you to point fingers.

Our airplane was grounded last week. We had a bad magneto, which is pretty important. A magneto is a simple but vital aircraft engine component, that is driven by the spinning engine and uses magnets to produce pulses of electricity for the spark plugs. Airplanes have two for redundancy, so even with one bad magneto, I was able to keep flying and landed safely.

Labor Day weekend was a lot of things to a lot of people. To former pastor Alexander Lang of Arlington Heights, it was the weekend his article, “Why I Left The Church”, went viral. It was eaten up by multitudes of mostly millennials and some Gen-Zers who hail from evangelical backgrounds, though Rev. Lang himself is not an evangelical.

In 1830, George Wilson killed a government employee who caught him in the act of robbing the mail. He was tried and sentenced to be hanged. However, then President of the United States, Andrew Jackson, sent him a pardon. But Wilson did a strange thing. He refused to accept the pardon and no one seemed to know what to do.

When we lived in Wisconsin, occasionally we’d take our kids to UW basketball games. During some of the time-outs, the cheerleaders and pom-pom girls would go through the seating areas and throw little red basketballs into the stands for people to keep as souvenirs.

Flying an airplane isn’t easy. I learned that quickly when I began flight training almost three years ago.

It was early in my freshman year of high school. I was happy because it was a rare day for me to eat hot lunch in the school cafeteria, rather than the usual bologna sandwich from a brown paper bag.

It happened again. I have a hard time resisting a Wendy’s chocolate Frosty. So much so that it seems every time I buy one, I wind up with a brain freeze.

Dr. Fred Faust tells of the following man: “Early in my ministry, I met a man named Worral. He had been stricken with rheumatoid arthritis at age 15, and when I met him 30 years later, he was totally paralyzed except for 1 finger, could barely speak and was totally blind.

Chicago native George Crane was a psychologist and popular syndicated columnist in the mid to late 20th century. He often wrote on marriage and relationships, and prided himself in giving “common horse sense.”